Play Mas for Toronto Fringe fest

The Brown Cotton Theatre's production, Play Mas With Shakespeare – A Carnival Rebellion, will be featured in the Toronto Fringe Festival and the theatre is trying to raise funds to cover production costs.

The Toronto Fringe Festival is the largest theatre festival in Ontario. The Digital Fringe runs from July 21-31 online at fringetoronto.com and features on-demand Fringe content, live digital events, watch parties, digital lobby gatherings and a virtual patio.

In Play Mas. "Jab Molassie, Jab Jab, Midnight robber, Pierrot Grenade and Jamette spout Shakespeare and sing calypsoes as they wreak havoc on the world in this post-colonial, post-modern satirical comedy that defines its own theatrical genre, said a media release.

Produced by Louris Martin Lee-Sing for Brown Cotton Theatre, arm of the not-for-profit NGO Brown Cotton Outreach (BCO), Play Mas is an original script written by Wayne Lee-Sing and theatre icon Ellen O’Malley Camps who directed the staged play.

The show was performed live earlier this year at The Little Carib Theatre, Woodbrook, for Carnival, and for International Women’s Day in March. It is based on Camps’ original concept of a Theatre of Carnival as a pillar of her own Camps Carnival Theatre Technique (CCTT), the release said.

Louris, who plays Midnight Robber, was thrilled that the show was selected for the Fringe from a large pool of international applicants, the release said. This meant that Play Mas had to be shot and edited as a short film, which was no small feat in a strict lockdown and curfew measures due to the covid19 pandemic. To accomplish the mission, Louris transformed her living room into a film studio, and under strict covid protocols, the actors came one at a time to film their parts. She was assisted by husband, Wayne, who is a writer, photographer, videographer, actor, general theatre practitioner and cook.

With borrowed microphone and smartphone video camera, Louris and Wayne made a theatre video which was edited by the Canadians who were assigned to them through the largesse of the Fringe, the release said.

The cast and crew of Play Mas are Afi Ford Hopson as Jab Molassie; Dr Danielle Elliott as King Jab Jab; Leslie Ann Lavine as Pierrot; Louris Lee-Sing as Midnight Robber and Wayne Lee-Sing as Jamette. Videography is by Wayne and sound recording by Louris. The calypsoes are sung by actors and produced by Roger Israel; costumes are the actors’ own. Make-up design by Mervyn De Goeas was applied by the actors. The film is edited by Logan Giles and Joshua Oliveros. Theatrical direction is by Ellen O’Malley Camps with filmic direction by Louris and Wayne.

Toronto Fringe Festival

The Toronto Fringe was founded by a cluster of local indie artists in 1989 to offer the “fringes” of the performing arts community a platform to create art at a grassroots level. It’s theatre by the people, for the people, said the website fringetoronto.com

"Since then, the Toronto Fringe Festival has become the largest theatre festival in Ontario, showcasing 150-plus productions every July at 30-plus venues around downtown Toronto. But throughout its three decades of growth, Fringe has kept the indie, grassroots spirit alive.

"The Digital Fringe will prove that the Fringe spirit can live anywhere – whether you log in from a cozy apartment or from a blanket on the beach. Fringe lives everywhere, and this community won’t let a pandemic get in the way of uncensored self-expression. The Fringe lives on," fringetoronto.com said.

Funding campaign

To participate in the Fringe, the Brown Cotton Theatre has started a FundmeTnT.com campaign to help to cover actors' stipends and other production costs as well as much needed equipment for the theatre to continue its work, the release said.

Contributions can be made at: https://fundmetnt.com/campaign/play-mas-with-shakespeare

For updates and more info: follow Brown Cotton Outreach on Facebook and YouTube, browncotton@gmail.com or 868-686-9965.